U.S. Chamber's Neil Bradley on Capitol siege: Trump's actions have 'no place in a free and democratic society'

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive VP and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley joins Yahoo Finance Live to break down why the U.S. Chamber is pausing lawmaker support following the violent U.S. Capitol riot last week and weigh in on the importance of impeaching President Trump.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: The political fallout continues from the events at the Capitol last week. And politicians are feeling particular pressure from the business community where we see companies and organizations continuing to take action or speak out about future potential actions they may take with respect to supporting certain politicians. One of those organizations, of course, is the US Chamber of Commerce, and we're joined now by Neil Bradley. He's the executive vice president and the chief policy officer over at the Chamber.

Neil, great to speak with you this morning. So let's just, I guess, level set to start here, where is the Chamber at with respect to actions you have take, plan to take given what we saw last Wednesday, and how-- a lot of your members have already responded on an individual basis. What decision have you, as an organization, made to date?

NEIL BRADLEY: Yeah, well, Myles, great to be with you. I mean, first, we made clear from the outset that the activities that we saw last week, the violence, the attack on our capital, and, frankly, the words and the actions that led up to that, including by our own president, are inexcusable and unacceptable and have no place in a free and Democratic society.

We also said, as you noted, that it's not just the president, but there are other elected officials who, by their actions, have contributed to the erosion and the rule of law and Democratic norms, and that we'll be looking at the totality of the actions of our elected officials when we make determinations about who to support or not. And some of those elected officials will have forfeited the support of the US Chamber.

MYLES UDLAND: Neil, who specifically has the Chamber stopped supporting?

NEIL BRADLEY: Well, as we said earlier this week, right now, we're just beginning this election cycle, so we haven't made any determinations about who to support or not support. But we said the actions of last week and, frankly, over the next six days through the inauguration and whether there is a peaceful transition or whether we see further violence, whether we see more attempts to not recognize a legitimately elected president, and that's exactly what President-elect Biden is, that we're going to weigh all of those things in determining our support.

So we'll have more to say about specific individual members of Congress in the days ahead, but right now, we've put the marker down that there's going to be accountability. There is going to be consequences for what we've seen.

BRIAN SOZZI: Will you disclose specifically who you do stop supporting and do you view doing so as important?

NEIL BRADLEY: We will make clear the criteria in which we judge members and the members who have failed that criteria. It's also important, by the way, we keep talking about folks who have forfeited support. There are also a lot of elected officials who acquitted themselves remarkably well over the last few weeks. And they deserve our thanks and they deserve our support.

I think, in particular, about folks like Senator Young and Senator Blunt and Senator Klobuchar, both sides of the aisle. In the House, Representative Rodney Davis, Representative Lynne Cheney, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, people who, in a moment of crisis, not only said no to what they saw going on, they also doubled down on the importance of our Democratic institutions, in this case, the House and Senate, completing their work, counting the electoral votes and moving our country forward.

JULIE HYMAN: Neil, it's Julie here. I want to turn to the Chamber's legislative agenda because Tom Donohue, your head, sort of laid it out in a speech, I believe, yesterday. What to you is the top priority? As you go and meet with members of Congress, as this new Congress gets seated, what is going to be your number one message to them?

NEIL BRADLEY: Well, obviously, the first thing we have to do is we have to beat this pandemic. And so turbocharging the vaccination process. Making sure that all the resources that are necessary to get Americans vaccinated are in place. And to support businesses during that period and support families including all those new Americans we learned this morning who are filing unemployment claims. That's going to be really important.

But we are going to get past this pandemic. And as we do, we have to think about how we build our economy back better and stronger. And one of the key aspects there is an infrastructure package. Long overdue, a broad-based approach. This morning, we announced that over 140 organizations from across the spectrum, environmental groups, labor groups, business groups like ourselves, have all come together with a pledge to support getting an infrastructure bill done by the 4th of July. And so we're calling on President-elect Biden and the new Congress to get that done.

We also have to think about job training programs. We have 10 million Americans out of work, but we also have six million job openings. It's just that the industries that are looking to hire don't match the industries where people have been displaced. And so we have to get folks the skills and the training to get into those jobs that are open. That's going to be an important initiative that we work with Congress and governors on this year.

MYLES UDLAND: Neil, I'm just curious, from your vantage point in the conversation around the role of the corporation within American life, we've seen that role increase. And I think a lot of the leadership that has been looked to, and there's a survey out yesterday that business leaders are now more trusted than, certainly, the media but also government officials as well by a fairly wide margin.

What does that change about the Chamber of Commerce's position within, I guess, the political sphere if that makes sense? Because CEOs now are seen as, I think in many ways, more effective and more important leaders and communicators than elected officials, which is kind of an inversion of the way it has been. Does that change maybe the way that the Chamber thinks about its own role within policymaking and so on?

NEIL BRADLEY: Yeah, the Chamber's existed for more than 100 years. And for all of those hundred plus years, we've recognized that free enterprise, that the ability to do business, to start a company, to run a company, really is dependent on the rule of law and well-functioning Democratic institutions. And so the importance of business-- for business of Democratic norms and a well-functioning democracy hasn't changed.

I think what fairly has changed over the last several years is that the polarization in this country, the breakdown in the functioning of Democratic institutions, the trust Americans have in those institutions, has really grown to levels that frankly we haven't seen in many generations. And we have a role to help rebuild that and to encourage elected officials to focus on rebuilding democracy and Democratic norms.

And so two years ago, the Chamber changed how we evaluate members of Congress. We said that in addition to your position on issues, we're going to look at your willingness to work across the aisle to get things done. Your commitment not just to saying what you're for, but to actually sitting down and compromising and helping get things actually enacted into law. And so we recognized this several years ago.

The events of the last several weeks have only emphasized the importance of the business community stepping forward and really pushing our elected officials to recommit to all the things that have made this the greatest country in the world.

JULIE HYMAN: Neil, thanks so much for your time today. Neil Bradley is US Chamber of Commerce executive vice president and chief policy officer. Thanks again.